FanHouse Politics

Each Friday throughout the season, I'll provide you with my predictions on whose stock is on the rise and whose is failing miserably like an American bank. It's a neat little segment entitled Buys and Sells. There are a few teams/players/issues to buy and a few to sell.

Ah, yes. It's Friday and that means it's time for another edition of Buys and Sells. I know you're all been dying with anticipation... Or not. But hey, the weekend is here -- and what an awesome weekend it is going to be. On Saturday night, all 30 teams are in action. And hey if you're not, you know, being social or something, sitting back and watching the utter insanity that is 15 NHL games in one night isn't a bad consolation prize for a Saturday night spent on the couch. And there's no hangover the next day, either. That's a win-win situation for both you and your liver. But enough about your internal organs... Let's get to it!

In the video below, the Democratic Presidential candidate refers to the school nickname as the "Nittaly Lions". Good thing he's not running for public office or anything.

The program's head coach who leans right might take offense, but then there's his son and quarterbacks coach who enjoys blogging about his love for Barack Obama on company time to find sympathy from. Regardless, it's friendly and forgiving political turf.

Not that he needs any excuses, but it's been a long campaign and these mistakes happen to all the candidates, although this one does call back a bit to John Kerry's "Lambert Field" error in Wisconsin. The difference of course being Obama comes across as an actual athlete and sports fan instead of playing one for the cameras.

See the gaffe for yourself below.

(Via: The Swamp)

That apple fell far from the tree, politically. And, perhaps, in overall football competence.

So anyway, Penn State quarterback coach Jay Peterno spends some of his workday hours blogging in support of Barack Obama. I'm not here to judge but it seems an unusual use of office time for someone basically credited with the disastrous Penn State quarterback situation the last few years. And of course, Penn State fans are letting him hear about it.

By Joe Eb from York, PA Jun 20th 2008 at 9:52 am EDT And Jay you should be worrying about the offense of a college football team that has a LOT of questions, not blogging about Obama.

By Jay Paterno Jun 20th 2008 at 10:02 am EDT For your information our offense was #1 in the Big Ten last year in the only two categories that we really look at: the key situations of Red Zone and Third Downs (and to a lesser extent 4th downs where we ranked #7 in the nation).

Yeah. Read the whole thing for inevitable comment deletions, "Zach Mills" never-ending arguments and other hilarity.

So ... my lil' tongue-in-cheek post about Rep. Robin Hayes' (NC-R) confusion over Homeland Security's directive that Congress members be immunized before attending a NASCAR race touched a few nerves.

Many readers are appalled at the notion of politicians needing to be immunized against a bunch of rednecks. Lowe's Motor Speedway President Humpy Wheeler wasn't thrilled either:

"The very idea of immunization is laughable. It's like taping your ankles to go to the mailbox. This is not some third- or fourth-world country. "

But the reality is, it's not laughable at all, despite the media and politicians having a little fun with the issue:

We're two years out from the next Presidential election, but already one of the lead candidates is hitting the red state sports scene hard for votes: Rudy Giuliani. See the screen capture below - a Guiliani for President ad placed prominently on the Rivals.com college football website.



Nice.

This is smart and annoying at the same time. Guiliani must first defeat several other big time Republicans in the various primaries if he is to have a shot at being President.. Seeing as how he hails from deep blue New York, a concerted effort must be made to bridge the gap between himself and the red, southern-ish party base. Enter the Rivals.com ad.

Like I said, smart. Hey, look at me, I'm Rudy and I like football! So long as he doesn't pretend he's part of the Kennedy clan playing football with the family and get photographed having the football attack him (don't fight the ball!) like uh, one John Kerry, this will work out well.

Yet ... it's also annoying. The campaigns just keep getting earlier and earlier and now the pandering extends not only to mailers, phone calls, television ads and radio ads, but also our favorite internet sports sites that are supposed to be our diversions from the politicians. Oy.